Eye care solution for Eastern Caribbean coming soon

Caribbean nationals, especially those living in the Eastern Caribbean, will be able to access state-of-the-art eye care closer to home in just a few months.

Word of this development came during a recent tour of the Lions Caribbean Eye Care Centre (LCECC) at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) in Barbados, where a new ophthalmology department and cardiac suite are to be opened. Barbados’ Health Minister, Donville Inniss told those attending the tour, that the project, which is estimated to cost a total of US$6.5 million is to be completed by March 2013, with the ophthalmology section fully operational by the end of January, and the cardiovascular services by the end of March.

European Union Ambassador to Barbados and the Eastern
Caribbean, Mikael Barfod (left), speaking with Barbados’
Minister of Health, Donville Inniss, during the tour of the
Lions Caribbean Eye Care Centre on Friday afternoon.

Inniss made the announcement as he said that once operational, Barbados will be poised to become the referral centre of choice in the Caribbean for eye care. The Grenada Advocate understands that the need for the LCECC arose from a study conducted between 1987 and 1992 in Barbados, which concluded that cataract remained the leading cause of curable blindness in the Caribbean, followed by glaucoma.

“Today we can boast of having, I believe all or nearly all the sub-specialities in ophthalmology available right here in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and that is something we have kept very quiet about so far. But I don’t think there is any other hospital in the Caribbean that can say that they have all the sub-specialities of ophthalmology available in it,” he said.


Meanwhile, the Director of Medical Services at the QEH, David Callendar, said that the backlog for eye surgery will also become a thing of the past and that the LCECC will ultimately transform the provision of eye care in Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean.

“When we get back into this unit and upstairs, there should be no waiting list for cataract surgery and the department will be able to handle any ophthalmic problem that presents itself here,” he said.

Consultant Head, Ophthalmology, Dr. Trevor Drakes (fourth
from left), explaining the features of the new unit to those
touring the facility on Friday, including Members of the Lions
Club of Barbados, Members of the Board of Management
of the QEH and Barbados’ Parliamentary Secretary in the
Ministry of Health, Senator Irene Sandiford-Garner.

The Director of Medical Services said that it has been a long-time dream of the hospital for that department to be as high a quality as others in the world, and he is pleased to see it coming to fruition.

“Due to the vision of our long-standing members of staff ... we felt that we had the capacity in this hospital to develop our own skills in-house and over the past 10 years, we have embarked on a training programme, where we now have every major sub-specialty represented here in the department, so that when we move into this unit, we can pat ourselves on the back and hit the ground running,” he said.

In terms of the cardiac suite, which was made possible through a $5 million grant from the European Development Fund, Callendar said that the plan is to have a fully-loaded angiography suite, an operating theatre, recovery room and patient beds located in that first floor department.

“There are several advantages to having all that in one location. You can make better utilisation of staff, both nursing and medical; better service for the patients; and it improves the functionality and efficiency of the unit. So, rather than having patients scattered throughout the hospital, we have everything under one roof, downstairs in the cardiac suite and I am looking forward to when that is operational,” he said.
(JRT)